I was recently diagnosed with an allergy to brewer's yeast. This
obviously means no beer or wine. But are there any types of hard
liquor (or specific brands) that do not have any brewer's yeast, or at
least very low levels?
Trying to prepare for holiday parties!

Hi Coop99,

The Auckland Allergy Clinic (
http://www.allergyclinic.co.nz/guides/54.html ) has this to say about
yeast in the production of alcoholic drinks:

"All alcoholic drinks depend on yeast to produce the alcohol - they
are all risks, but 'real' ales contain far more than distilled
spirits. Strains of yeast for distillery, baking and wine fermentation
are classified as Saccharomyces cerevisiae but are not
interchangeable. No allergenic difference has been observed between
Baker's yeast and Brewer's yeast."

So, as you noted, you need to avoid beer and wine varieties. However,
you also need to be aware that *all* alcoholic beverages will contain
yeast to some extent. Certain alcoholic beverages are distilled from
beers and wines, and may therefore have high yeast content also. For
example:

"Whiskeys - distilled from "beers" and aged - Scotch, Bourbon, Rye.
Cognacs and brandies - distilled from wines.
Grain alcohol is 95% = 190 proof
Gin and vodka - ethanol + water, gin is flavored.
Rum - fermented molasses or sugarcane juice"

Source: ( http://www.csdl.tamu.edu/FLORA/328Fall98/alcohol.html )

The Family Guide Encyclopedia of Medical Care (
http://www.healthsquare.com/mc/fgmc2007.htm ) suggests that if you
have an allergy to yeast, you should absolutely avoid drinking ale and
beer, chianti wine, red or white wine, sherry and vermouth. It also
recommends that you limit your intake (to 1-3 servings per week) of
distilled liquor and port wine.

Further sources suggest not drinking alcoholic beverages at all,
because they all have relatively high yeast contents (
http://www.nmh.org/patient_ed_pdfs/pt_low_tryamine_diet.pdf )


To summarise: All alcoholic drinks have yeast, as this is one of the
catalysts for fermentation. So no, there are not any types of liquor
that do not have any brewer's yeast. Rum, gin, and vodka are types of
liquor that are not derived from another high-yeast alcoholic
beverage, and so have the lowest yeast content of alcoholic beverages.

Please note that the above does not constitute medical advice. If you
suffer severe symptoms as a result of ingesting yeast, please avoid
all alcoholic beverages. It's up to you to decide whether drinking
alcoholic beverages is worth the symptoms of yeast allergy, but
*please* make this decision after consultation with your doctor.


Wishing you good health and great holiday parties,

shananigans-ga

****

Search strategy: 'alcoholic beverages yeast' 'low yeast alcoholic
beverages' entered in to Google search engine.

Pretty much what I found myself doing my own search. But thanks for the effort.

I have a friend who is allergic to yeast. In his case, the symptoms
are severe migraine.

He has found that he can drink White German wine - which he does by
the bucketful - but all other wines & beers, etc. affect him badly.

Hope this helps!